U.S. spy agency chief to meet with hackers at 'Defcon'

July 20 (Reuters) - Computer geeks attending the world'slargest annual hacking party in Las Vegas next week will have arare chance to rub shoulders with the head of the U.S. NationalSecurity Agency.

General Keith Alexander, director of the spy agency, willspeak at the Defcon conference, marking the highest-level visitto date by a U.S. government official to the colorful gathering.Organizers expect some 15,000 hackers this year as theycelebrate the 20th anniversary of the first U.S. hacking eventthat was open to the public.

The Pentagon disclosed the visit on Friday.

"We're going to show him the conference. He wants to wanderaround," said Jeff Moss, a hacker who organized the first Defconconference while working as a messenger for a Seattle law firm.He now sits on an advisory committee to the Department ofHomeland Security.

Alexander may choose to talk shop with the techies. He holdsfour master's degrees, including ones in electronic warfare andphysics.

Still, Moss said he expect there could be some controversyover Alexander's presence among the diverse hacker crowd thatattends the conference.

The NSA plays both offense and defense in the cyber wars. Itconducts electronic eavesdropping on adversaries, in addition toprotecting U.S. computer networks.

"I expect some people will say 'You are a sellout for havingsomeone from the NSA speak," said Moss, who is known as the DarkTangent in the hacking community.

But he doesn't see it that way.

"One of the things I try to do at Defcon is take some of thehackers out of their comfort zone. I want to expose them topeople they would normally not hear from," he said.

"Don't you think it's important to hear what the most seniorperson at the NSA has to say? I'm interested in hearing what hehas to say," said Moss, whose full-time job is serving as chiefsecurity officer with ICANN, the Internet Corporation forAssigned Names and Numbers, which helps manage theinfrastructure for much of the Internet.

Hackers come to the conference to exchange information abouttools of the trade, socialize and compete in hacking contests.

There will be talks on attacking mobile phones and GoogleTV, more technical discussions on programming and discussionsabout government surveillance.

Defcon offers a side conference for children, Defcon Kids,which Alexander will likely visit. It also trains hackers topick locks and has an annual contest to measure who is best atpersuading corporate workers to release sensitive data over thephone.

Moss said he invited federal agents to the first Defconconference, but that they politely declined. They showed upanyway, incognito. They kept coming, in bigger numbers,sometimes in uniform.

"We created an environment where the feds felt they couldcome and it wasn't hostile," Moss said. "We could ask themquestions and they wanted to ask the hackers about newtechniques."

He said he's spent a decade trying to get the head of theNSA to speak at Defcon, but he never imaged it would actuallyhappen: "To me this is really validating of the whole culture."

(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston; Additional reporting by JimWolf in Washington; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)